“Hey, Mr. Morales. Are you alright?”
Miguel simply stares at the side of her face like he’d never seen her before. “...Remind me to never. Ever. Ever make you mad.”
Luna grins shyly, showing off all of those sharp teeth. “Did you find what you were looking for? Can we go?”
“Ah..hold up. Need to get rid of this stuff first. Make sure that...nngth...I teach Scar a lesson.”
The two walk over towards the front of the warehouse and Miguel pushes off from Luna, stepping up the loading ramp. He opens his vest to expose the grenades he had brought for this very purpose. He pulls the pins on each one of them and tosses them into the warehouse, quickly moving back to Luna.
“Let me onto your back and carry me to the car. I don’t know how much of a racket that’s going to cause.”
Luna leans down for Miguel to climb onto her back and once he was properly boarded, she takes off, leaping over the fence. As she’s crossing the street, the timed grenades detonate and the explosion they create nearly blow the walls off of the warehouse. Luna’s ears cry in agony at the sound of the boom, it being nearly enough to drop her to her knees temporarily As she reaches the alley she looks back towards the Vyers warehouse, seeing a huge plume of blue smoke rising from the building, as well as a raging inferno of fire.
Sakura cringes as she feels the sudden heat of the hit her legs, and while they were toasty, she was unaffected by the blast. She pulls her legs together and slides through the hole that held her upright, falling into the interior of the car. She reaches the door and unlocks it, stepping out of the vehicle crisply. Sakura leans over to check the condition of the dock workers underneath the car and finds nothing but ashen remains. She sighs again and reaches up towards her sword and yanks it out of the car with an annoyed snort. She flicks the blade out and throws off the enchantment, turning the blade back to silver and sliding it back in her sheath. She reaches into her pocket and pulls out her panel phone and puts in a call towards Scardino, angrily pacing over to where her bike landed from hitting her in the face.
Scardino picks up rather quickly with loud jazz music blaring in the background. His voice is soothing but grating at the same time, like velvet sliding over jagged rocks.
“What is it you require? I am quite busy at the moment.”
Sakura winces at that.
“Uh...so about those shipments? Yeah, I don't think you'll need to be worrying about them anymore."
Scar goes quiet for a moment, letting the statement sink in before speaking again. "Meaning...what exactly?"
Sakura hesitates, knowing full well that his reaction was likely to be...negative. And that was putting it lightly. Scar speaks again in a far more annoyed tone.
“Either tell me now or I come down there. And trust me, I will be far less hospitable if I have to make that trip.”
Sakura panics. “No-no-no! Uh! No that’s...fine. You are fine. A mortal dude and his pet werewolf came in here, killed everybody except for me and uh...blew...up..one of your warehouses.”
A moment of silence passes over the phone as she relays that information, Sakura gulping in fear. Her shoulders retract a bit as she expected yelling but instead a calm voice speaks.
“...How much of the shipment is gone?”
Sakura turns to look back towards the hellscape that was once a warehouse. Only fire lives in there now.
“A-all of it.”
Scar’s voice grows faint for a moment as several series of curses could be heard. Suddenly Scar’s voice explodes back onto the phone, forcing Sakura to lean back a bit to hear properly.
“What the hell do I pay you people for!? Don’t you understand that plans are in motion, things are finally picking up and I have an endgame to worry about? Specifically, for a highly trained guard who’s supposed to be an assassin, you have been surprisingly shitty track record at both, don’t you?”
Sakura finds her bike just then. The black vehicle is still in one piece, but it’s been scratched all to hell and back thanks to sliding across the asphalt.
Scar’s voice roars again. “SAKURA VYERS, you listen to me, and you listen well. One more time. You make one more mistake. One more misstep. ONE. MORE. And I will end you and your chances of advancing in this family. Do you understand me?”
Sakura sighs as she pulls her bike up from the ground and straddles it. She speaks defeatedly, shaking her head. “Yes. Yes-sir.”
Scar calms down. “Good. yes. Very good. I will be sending your next assignment over shortly. Please do surprise me with competence.”
The conversation ends with a beep as sirens scream in the distance. Sakura starts her bike and drives, stopping over by the spot where her helmet fell and slipping it back on her head. She speeds off from the burning warehouse, which had started to collapse in on itself now, focusing on the road in front of her.
She puts drops her foot on the accelerator, pushing the bike as fast as it would go as the sirens closed in.
Chapter 9
Learning New Tricks
Luna and Miguel make it back home in mostly in one piece, as Luna had to help him up the stairs to the apartment. She opens the door for him and guides him to his room, though Miguel pushes off from her at the door.
“I...I think I’ve got it. Go get me some cold stuff in the freezer. Ice packs or frozen veggies or something. Bring em here. That and a wet rag. Cold.”
Luna nods towards the request and goes to fulfill it while Miguel ambles into his room. He almost collapses on his bed, sliding off his shoes and grabbing the heavy suitcase he had left on the bed. He deposits his guns and their corresponding ammunition back inside of it before closing it up again and pushing it to the side, out of the way. Miguel chuckles to himself, realizing that he didn’t even use either one of his guns. He takes off his earpiece and his shirt and looks himself over for injuries.
If he were still complete flesh and blood, he would have been in much worse shape, but fortunately, his metallic limbs took the most thrashing. Miguel has a fair amount of muscle tone, choosing to actively keep fit while he was recovering during the cyberization process. His metallic arm had some scuffing on it, but otherwise, it seemed to be functioning fine, Miguel testing this by rotating his wrist and flexing his fingers. His torso and his regular right arm were bruised up, but thankfully nothing seemed broken.
Miguel changes clothes into an A-shirt and a pair of sleeping shorts as Luna returns, carrying two ice packs, several glacially freezer burned packs of vegetables and a wet rag. She sits next to him and hands over the ice packs first, seeing the multiple bruises.
“Are...you okay? I’m really sorry I didn’t get down there sooner.”
Miguel takes the ice packs and straps one to the joint between his left shoulder and his metal arm and the other one straps neatly on his right forearm.
“Nah kid, you are fine. Don’t worry about me. I’ve been beaten up worse than this when I was a kid. Besides. I was just thinking I was gonna run into some thugs. I didn’t expect damn vampires. Maybe all those stupid stories do have some truth to them.”
Luna scratches her head quizzically at that. “Huh...that would explain the magic sword..and the blood..and..the teeth.”
Miguel nods. “Pass me the rag next.”
Luna hands it to him and winces herself, somehow forgetting that she had been stabbed. She keeps it to herself and puts on a conversational smile for Miguel.
“That went...well...right?”
Miguel shrugs. “I’m not dead, you aren’t dead, we blew up the stuff, and you didn’t get seen. I think. That’s a win in my book.”
He takes the wet rag and applies it to his face, washing off the blood from his lip and his nose, though both had stopped bleeding by now. He cleans himself with it before resting it on his shoulder and reaching down to grab one of his legs. Luna inquisitively looks over towards his Cybernetic legs with interest. Similar to his arms, they were unified in their silver and blue design, but they were very much molded to r
esemble what his actual limbs used to look like. Miguel slides open a panel the side of his leg and rests his hands over a small keypad, his fingers pressing various buttons.
“Mr. Morales...uhm..what...what’re you doing?”
Miguel stops what he’s doing and looks at her plainly.
“Oh...weren’t you wondering why I needed help and was limping back to the car? I mean, I don’t have real legs anymore, right?”
Luna blinks in realization. “Oh...Ooooooh yeah! That doesn’t make sense.”
Miguel continues. “Normally cybernetics just take care of calibrations, but when I’m getting my kneecaps busted hard enough, I need to realign them and god damn does it hurt. So if you’ll excuse me…”
Miguel finishes inputting the commands and a small whirring noise burrows into Luna’s ears. He braces himself as his leg visibly moves out to the side and shifts its position automatically, Miguel clenching his teeth at the unnerving sensation. It only takes a few seconds before his leg slides properly back into place and he lets out a massive sigh of relief. He waits a few seconds before doing the same to the other leg, with similar results.
Miguel exhales deeply as he reaches over towards Luna and grabs one of the packs of mixed vegetables, holding it to his bruised side. He then points over towards his computer desk and to peculiar looking device. A set of long, flat sticks were sitting in a small slotted tray, the front of them marked with a blue light that was pulsing. At the top of each of the sticks was also a little notch for a light, though these were all green.
“And last but not least, bring me three of those.”
Luna pulls the requested number out of the charging station and hands them over, sitting back down next to him.
“Batteries?”
Miguel nods as he slides open another slot on the outside of his leg, this one being a bit higher up than the keypad. With the press of a button a battery stick is sprung out of his mechanical leg. The small light at its top was orange. Luna’s tail wags in curiosity as she watches him.
“How long do these batteries last?”
Miguel shrugs, sliding in one of the new charge sticks into his leg. Judging by the angle, it slid in deeply, likely to prevent it from being damaged or rattled. “About three days. Less if I use it for fighting or anything strenuous.”
“Oh. That sounds like it lasts for awhile. That’s good. What if you run out though?”
Miguel slides the compartment closed on this leg before reaching over to his other leg and popping the long battery out.
“Well, I’ve got like, a half an hour’s worth of emergency power if everything’s drained, but past that point I’m toast. These things may as well be hunks of metal if I am that reckless.” He replaces the charge stick in his leg and closes it.
Luna croons with knowledge, nodding towards him.
“That makes sense. That should get you enough time to get back home or find something to get up and running again.”
Miguel nods, opening up the last of the compartments and switching out batteries. Flexing his arm and feeling the power flow through the mechanical limb, he looks towards Luna. “That’s the idea. Now turn around kid.”
Luna does as he asks, but turns her head up and to the side so she could look back at him. “What for?”
“Did you really think I didn’t notice that hole in your hoodie?”
Luna’s ears lower to the side of her head as she sighs. She looks forward again and raises an arm and pulls up her sweatshirt enough to expose the wound. The sword cut through her side just underneath her rib, but it already looked like it was healing up judging by the closed wound present. Satisfied with that to some degree, he then looks at the inside of the sweatshirt he could see, noticing the dried blood on it. He reaches up to tug her shirt back down.
“We really need to get you some new clothes. I’m sorry kid, I’ve been focusing on...other things. How about tomorrow I go and pick you up a few things. Do you know what size you are?”
Luna leans her head back again, looking at Miguel without turning around. “Well...I mean I used to. But that was before I grew like, half a foot and got all fuzzy.”
Miguel chuckles good-naturedly before standing up, pushing the frozen veggie packs onto the bed. “Well, I’ll just have to make a guess. A lot of wild guessing. Good lord this is going to be a lot of trips back to the store.”
Luna turns towards him finally and stands, smoothing out her hoodie with a hand. “I don’t want you to spend too much money on me. I mean, you’ve done so much already.”
Miguel gestures, swatting away Luna’s verbal concern. “Don’t worry about it, it’s the least I can do for ya after tonight. By the by, you did really good tonight kid. Really good. Saved me, that’s for damn sure.”
Luna’s tail sways happily. “Oh..uh...D-don’t mention it. I just...you know. Did what I could to help. I watched you sneak in though. Did you do that stuff in the army? Like special ops or anything?”
Miguel chuckles as he crosses his arms over one another. “Nah. I went in and became a combat medic. I was deployed overseas for awhile and saw some fighting, but I also spent time working in the infirmary too. I ended up learning the majority of that stuff from just basic training, a little bit of reading, putting two and two together and listening to some of the guys as they were recovering.”
Luna’s brows raise, looking most certifiably impressed. “Wow...like...the only time I’ve seen that kind of stuff in video games or in movies but seeing you just bust it out like it was nothing. That’s cool.”
Miguel grins as he steps towards the door and opens it for her. “Well, I’m glad you approve. In either case young lady, this old man is going to go to sleep. Help yourself to anything in the fridge. Goodnight.”
Luna steps outside of the door and waves in return, the door closing up and locking with a click. She turns around and heads towards the kitchen, the mention of food reminding her that she should grab something before bed.
∆∆∆
Later on that evening, far beyond the time she’d fallen asleep on the couch, Luna awakens in an unusual place for the second time. She was lying face down and bleary-eyed in soft grass that felt real to the touch. She pushes herself up to stand, and the first thing that immediately grabs her attention was the moon. It was larger, almost impossibly large in the clear sky, dominating most of it. The stars were also abnormally bright, numerous in number and twinkling of their own accord.
Luna immediately recognized this as some sort of dream, but she’d never been in a place that felt so real. There was a small breeze pushing through the evergreen forest that surrounded her, ruffling the branches and sifting through the grasses. Her foot claws could feel the dirt of the earth. And unlike before, nothing was translucent, though she did appear to have a small purple aura around her, the same hue as her eyes. Was this place related to the mysterious blurry island she was on before?
When she goes to speak, she finds that her voice is intact and sounds about the same as it did in real life. “Hello? Anyone? Is...is anyone here?”
She waits for a few tense moments and fails to get any kind of response, but the soft breeze comforts her loneliness. Unable to think of anything else to do she starts to walk forward into the spirit forest, following the direction of the wind at her back. After a few minutes, she overhears a soft clopping noise. It seemed to be coming from everywhere, but there were distinctly only four hooves.
As soon as Luna turns around, she finds the source. A stag spirit about two times larger than she was, stands before her, it’s glowing blue eyes piercing through the werewolf. It lowers its head and stamps it’s hooves aggressively, quaking the very ground beneath Luna’s feet. It speaks, but it’s mouth does not move, the voice instead filling Luna’s head.
~”You...wretch.”~
Luna gulps as she takes a step back, holding out her hands pleadingly towards the stag. “Whoa-whoa-whoa, take it easy okay? Who...wh-where is thi-”
The stag’s voice
reverberates through Luna’s consciousness by sheer volume alone. ~”SILENCE ABOMINATION! Your kind have the audacity, after so many centuries, to show up here!? AGAIN!?”
Luna cowers in fear now, her ears and tail laid low as she slowly backs away from the spirit. The stag’s eyes glow brighter.
~“The time for atonement passed ages ago. The waters of time wash away many things but your stench...will never be cleansed. As long as I stand guard, your kind will never again be welcome in these wylds. BE GONE!”~
The stag charges Luna immediately, lowering its head to attempt to gore her with it’s massive antlers. Despite their size of the bone protrusions from the spirit’s head, they seem to be phasing through the various trees with no trouble at all. Luna turns to run, digging her feet into the ground to get as much speed as she could. Even sprinting on all fours, the stag is still faster, and just as she turns to see how much distance she’s put between them, a mighty jagged spur from the antler pierces her chest and starts to rip her in hal-
Luna wakes up again, this time on her couch and with her heart ready to leap out of her throat. The window from the living room showers her in a soft afternoon light. The sounds of cooking catch her ears, someone clinking a metal utensil on a ceramic surface. Meat is roasting in the oven, the aroma sinking directly into her nose. Luna’s pupils shrink as she looks around bewilderingly, her ears at attention and her breathing sped up. She reaches down to grasp at her chest and holds it there for a second, calming herself down.
Miguel’s head pokes out of the kitchen with a friendly smile. The night of rest and ice packs seemed to do wonders for his face, as the swelling had gone down dramatically. “Rise and shine La Loba. I started to wake you up when I came back in, but you looked like you were having one of those running dreams dogs have. Your legs and hands were moving, and you know, to be extremely honest, it was kind of cute.”
Luna gives him a weak smile and exhales deeply, dropping the stress from the dream and reclining on the couch completely. “Uh. Cute...r-right. What are you cooking? It smells really, really good.”
Ravenport: Luna's Awakening Page 12
